Harris Savides

Savides was born in New York City, to parents of Greek Cypriot origin, Eleni, a clerical worker, and Savas Savides, a short-order cook.^[1][2]

He graduated with a degree in photography and film from the School of Visual Arts.^[3][4]

Savides started as a key grip in the documentary Fist of Fear, Touch of Death from the 1980.

On TV, Savides served as a cinematographer on a TV short film entitled The Investigator (1994) directed by Matthew Tabak and a TV movie Lake Consequence (1993) directed by Rafael Eisenman.^[5]

His first solo job as a cinematographer was on the thriller Heaven's Prisoners (1996).^[3]

Savides was a frequent collaborator of Gus Van Sant, working in six of his films.

After working in the opening title sequence of Seven,^[6] Savides worked two more times with David Fincher, in The Game and Zodiac, which the latter was shot mostly with digital cameras.

Savides worked on a short film directed by Wong Kar Wai for BMW's "The Hire" film series, entitled The Follow.^[7] Savides also worked on Martin Scorsese's commercial The Key to Reserva, an homage to Alfred Hitchcock.^[8]

With director John Hillcoat, Savides worked in a series of Levi's commercials for their "To Work" advertising campaign.^[9]

In 2010, Savides was attached to Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, but dropped out after the discovery of his brain cancer. He was then replaced by Chris Menges^[10]

Savides also worked on two films directed by Sofia Coppola, with The Bling Ring being his final project before his death.

Savides was known for the very delicate images that he created for The Yards and Birth. In both instances he underexposed the filmstock by several stops in order to break up the colors and give the blacks a purplish and brownish tint. This non-conventional approach leads to a look that resembles the paintings of Georges de La Tour and Caravaggio.^[11]

For the visual style of Somewhere, Sofia Coppola discussed Bruce Weber's Hollywood portraits and Helmut Newton's of models at the Chateau Marmont, and Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), the film by Chantal Akerman about the routine of a Belgian housewife, with Savides. Savides said, "The main thing was to tell the story really simply and let it play out in long beats and have the audience discover the moment."^[12] Coppola used the lenses that her father had filmed Rumble Fish (1983) with in an effort to give the film a more period look, although it is set in the present.^[13]

Savides lived in Manhattan with his wife Medine, and daughter Sophie.

He died from brain cancer at age 55.^[1]

TV movies

Feature film

Short film

Music video

BAFTA Awards

Independent Spirit Awards

New York Film Critics Circle

International Cinephile Society

National Society of Film Critics

Other awards